For the first several months of your child’s life, his or her only means of communication is crying. Over time, you will learn to pick up on subtle cues and patterns to anticipate your infant’s needs before the wails begin, but for the time being, you must try to decipher your baby’s cry.

There are a few different ways that babies communicate their hunger. One of the best ways to tell is by stroking the side of your baby’s cheek. If they are hungry, they will do what is called “rooting” and turn their mouth to your hand. This is a natural act for many babies, and does not need to be taught. Another obvious sign of their hunger is when they chew on their toys and baby blankets or start to make smacking noises with their lips. When you are checking to see what is wrong with your baby, first look at the natural signs that they give you, and then test out different needs.

Although many parents believe that their baby can sleep in any situation, this is not the truth for some babies. If they are crying it may actually be because they want to be put in their crib to sleep. Some tired babies will make their need for sleep easy to identify by closing and opening their eyes frequently, while others will just get fussy and angry that they are being deprived of their nice comfy bed. If your baby is crying and you see no obvious problem, try laying them down in their crib for a moment, or providing them with a nice soft baby nap mat to lay on; this might just do the trick. It’s good practice to have a nap mat with you on the go, just in case your baby is in need of some extra rest.

Tuck a soft baby mat into your travel bag for naps on-the-go.

Another problem for babies that can be less obvious is when they are being either over stimulated or not stimulated enough. Babies spend each day taking in a world that they have so much still to learn from. This means that sometimes they can get overwhelmed by all the new things they are seeing and experiencing. On the other hand, babies can also be underwhelmed by their surroundings. Maybe it’s raining out and they have had to stay indoors all day, or maybe they are just bored. This is a simple enough problem to solve, even a simple stuffed animal can make a baby happy once more. One of the best selling toys on BabyBlankets.com is the Beba Bean Animal Rattle and it’s not a surprise, because babies like to touch and play with things, so what better entertainment than an adorable toy that makes noise?

These are just a few of the many reasons babies cry, but they can teach us a great deal about our children. Babies don’t want to give their parents a hard time – they just want to be understood. If we take the time to read the signs they are giving us, we may find these issues are easier to remedy than they seem.